I was just wondering what the experts thought about this:

I was playing at the barn the other day and 2 super aggressive players were going at it. One of them said something like..” I will give you 10 dollars to show your cards@ then promptly got the money ready. The other guy refused to show but I have no doubt if he had showed he would have been paid off.

This incident got stuck in my head but fast forward a week later..
I pick up AKs on the big blind. A tight talkative player raises to $10. I reraise to $35 and I get called. Flop comes out 7-3-2 rainbow. I C bet $35. Villain says something like “you got aces!” As he mucks his pocket 10s face up. I just say “maybe”. He says I am 110% sure you have aces or kings.

I then flashback to the week before and say “ give me $10 and you will find out”. He takes two red chips and hurls them at my stack with speed and accuracy to put Justin Verlander to shame. I flip over my AK and he has this stunned disbelief in his eyes.

I know most people are against giving away free information but this info was not free.

Would it be a better play to let him sweat? Do I take sure money at the risk of losing some by giving away the fact that I do sometimes bluff? Would showing my bluff benefit me equally to give the impression I am aggressive?

I wouldn't make the offer, but I would accept it if someone wanted to pay to see my cards, as I will almost invariably show after the hand if someone requests.

I would definitely show for $10, I can't see how the information would cost me that much in EV.

I think it's pretty silly for villain to accept this when your "give me $10 and I'll show" basically proves you don't have Aces or Kings.

If I was you I'd be very careful with what you show because villains will 100% over adjust and you're not just showing villain you're showing the whole table. I struggle to see how $10 doesn't cover this cost though.

If people thought I was incapable of bluffing I would have shown it for free. Now you got $10 plus the added benefit of getting called down lighter, which live games are all about.

Yeah but that doesn't translate to every spot which is what I was saying may potentially cause issues.

No but if people start folding overpairs to your cbets you're probably better off showing a bluff so you can get the stations going.

I would take the $10 every time.

I can understand accepting the free money. However, I would not accept. If you can keep a straight face, say something like “I always have aces”.

Overfolding is the most profitable behavior you want your opponents to continue. He will not suddenly become a call station, and there is no guarantee the dealer will give you another decent hand for the next several hours with which you could trap the magically transformed overcaller.

This is usually true, I think. However, in this case I'm happy letting him think it's a good idea to keep folding TT. That's way more profitable than getting him to adjust and call us light, unless his range is so tight to begin with that TT is not high in his range.

Players who make nitty folds are easy money, and much lower variance to play against than calling stations.

I should have mentioned that I had been playing tight. And I showed down a couple of nut hands (flush and straight) already.

He had some good reason to believe I had an overpair.

I always thought I wanted my opponents to be loose calling stations, not tight players. Even with A-K I had outs and there really was a good chance I had an overpair. It wasn't optimal but hardly the nittiest fold in the poker world.

I typically advocate showing a couple hands, but I wouldn't ask for the cash, only accept it if I thought it was worth while to the session with some factors involved ...
Was it early in your session?
Was this a reg (or table) that I need to 'mold' towards the information I'm giving?
Do I need to modify my image one way or the other?

I had a fairly candid conversation with a reg a month or two ago about game play and how a big portion of certain sessions can be related to generating folds. He promptly called me down super light in at least three spots in the following sessions.

"There are no friends at the poker table." ... $10 now may cost you $200 later. GL

I think there is a big future EV difference between explaining a good portion of your strategy to a decent reg for free and taking a payment of $10 in order to show a cbet HU with AKss.

Wasn't early in the session, I'd say about 2 hours in.
No, this table didn't contain anyone I recognized.
I think I needed to project the image of being more loose/aggressive. One considering factor to make the offer.

As someone has noted, AKs was not a loose bluff, so did not help your image. If you were going to show a bluff, a small suited connector that whiffed would be better.

This is the leveling of logic that is not required by simply never showing.